The cast and crew of Padmaavat went through a great deal of pain when the movie was delayed because of a political agitation by groups who thought their community had been belittled by the story. But it seems to have ultimately paid off handsomely because of the enormous amounts of publicity created by the opposition, which included death threats to the actors and vandalism of public property. At one point such was the magnitude of the protests that it even looked as if the movie might never see the light of the day. But it now seems that the box office has decided to repay more than what was the loss of the delay.
Padmaavat has touched Rs300 crore in revenues and that is an astonishing number for a movie that does not have Aamir Khan or Salman Khan in it. In fact, the only exception to this rule in the past has been Baahubali 2. Padmaavat has therefore broken into a very exclusive club and, without the momentum of the publicity, it would never have happened.
What it has also done is made the three actors in the movie — Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor — also members of the club. Since nothing sells like success in Bollywood, all three would find their market value considerably increased.
While Ranveer and Deepika were already at stratospheric heights, the man who stands to benefit more by this is Shahid. He had not even had a Rs100 crore movie to his name before and his career had been flagging. Even though Padmaavat really didn’t ride on his shoulders with Ranveer walking with most of the adulation for his performance, Shahid should still find A-list offers that were drying up now start coming again.
But the person who stands to gain the maximum is Padmaavat’s director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. About eight years back, after a couple of flops he had been discounted as someone who spends a lot of money on a project without delivering anything in return. He continued to remain true to his style, creating glitzy spectacles and sets to woo the audience. Padmaavat too was of a similar evocation. He will probably make movies on an even grander scale now and there would be a line of producers waiting to empty their pockets for him. Every star in town will also be wooing him to be cast in his movies.
Starry heights
Aamir Khan recently celebrated his 53rd birthday, and most of those years have been spent carving a career that has seen relentless ups. And now it does seem like he has reached a point where he can take on even greater ambitions, like his mega project on the Mahabharata that will span multiple movies and many years.
In a recent interaction with the media, when he was asked about whether Bollywood stars shouldn’t be charging so much so that projects are financially viable, Aamir revealed that he didn’t take any fees at all and that had been his practice for some time now. Instead, he took a percentage of the profits, which meant that his fortune was tied to the movie’s. This also has the advantage of freeing capital that could be used for the movie’s making.
But even with his stature, Aamir has not been able to control his nervousness before a movie of his releases. He said during a media interaction that because of the stress, he often took up smoking cigarettes before the release to quit soon after even though he knew that it was a bad habit. He now planned to give it up altogether.
Aamir also finally, prodded on by his wife, got onto the social networking medium of Instagram and for his first post, put up the image of his mother. When asked, he said it was because he owed everything to her.
Irrfan to fight back
True to his promise, Irrfan Khan came back to his fans about the ailment he was suffering from. He has neuroendocrine tumour, a form of cancer, and is going to go abroad from treatment. But he was clear that he was going to fight the disease. Irrfan put a post on Twitter saying: ‘The unexpected makes us grow, which is what the past few days have been about. Learning that I have been diagnosed with NeuroEndocrine Tumour as of now has admittedly been difficult, but the love and strength of those around me and that I found within me has brought me to a place of hope. The journey of this is taking me out of the country, and I request everyone to continue sending their wishes. As for the rumours that were floated NEURO is not always about the brain and googling is the easiest way to do research ;-) To those who waited for my words, I hope to be back with more stories to tell.’ But, despite the ailment, he continued to remain a true professional. When the director of his next movie Blackmail offered to postpone its release, Irrfan immediately vetoed the idea and said that it should go as per schedule.
Scare for Amitabh
Fans of Amitabh Bachchan had a scare when he fell ill while shooting for Thugs of Hindostan in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. He had been working through the night and tweeted later, ‘4:51 AM and just back from work. the city Jodhpur sleeps and so shall I in a while after connecting with the well wishers. love’. And then a little while later he wrote on his blog, ‘Ya, so it’s 5 am, the morning after the night that began yesterday. for work. some people need to work for a living and work hard. It’s been rough but when ever did any be achieved without…I am getting my team of Doctors in tomorrow morning to fiddle around with my body and set me up again. i will rest and keep informed in process’. Apparently, the strain of work had taken a toll on his body. Many of his friends in the film fraternity and elsewhere hoped for speedy recovery. His wife Jaya told the media that heavy costumes he wore during the shoot had led to pain in his body. But it was nothing serious. Ultimately, he decided to take a week’s rest and hopefully that will put him back into top gear.
Send your feedback to
[email protected]
EXCLUSIVE CLUB: From left, Shahid Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh, who have each joined the Rs300 crore film club.
